


Humanity's Promethean Problem

by BlueFeatherQuill



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 15:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6526159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueFeatherQuill/pseuds/BlueFeatherQuill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Incomplete - old work*<br/>The gods and goddesses are rapidly disappearing, leaving Camp Half Blood unprotected and preparing for a war like no other. In the midst of all this chaos a new camper arrives. But what does Opal Myin's appearance have to do with the fate of the human race?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Allypallycally1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allypallycally1/gifts).



Like a lot of stories, my one, starts with a journey. A train journey to be exact. And yeah I mean train as in public transport, so pretty grungy, graffitied seats and tables covered in spilt coffee. Funny thing is though, I really love trains. Not in the obsessive train-spotter sense, don’t worry, I’m not going to go spouting a whole load of meaningless numbers and figures at you, but as in the, just sitting down and see where it takes you sense. I guess I’m kind of easy going that way, it’s a shame my care-workers don’t seem to understand.  
Yeah, I’m a care-kid, scrounging off the system or whatever, well I’m sorry but I can’t help not having parents. And before you ask, nope, I have no idea who my real parents were and don’t particularly want to find out. I doubt they’d remember me anyway. So anyway, like I said I was sitting on a train, in one of those four-seater sections with a small table in the middle, I had my back to the window and my trainers up on the seat next to mine.  
Sitting there in my oldest pair of jeans, ripped denim jacket with a choker round my neck and a black t-shirt with bite me scrawled in blood red letters across the chest, you would've thought I’d have been pegged as a troublemaker by some official or other by now. Luckily for me, I could just tell them to go away and they’d leave me alone. It was a skill I found very useful, especially when dealing with police officers and over-enthusiastic social workers.  
My current care-worker, Stacy, was probably looking for me round about now. I’d left Clydesdale Care-home in Ashford at about five this morning by climbing out my window and shimmying down the drainpipe. From there I’d hailed a taxi off the main road, convinced him to take me, free of charge, to Ashford International train station and then caught the first train I came to. This one just so happened to be taking a roundabout route through the Kentish countryside so I was pretty happy sitting there and enjoying the view.  
I’d been on the train for about an hour or so as it hurtled along the track, hedgerows fields and hills all whizzed by the window and I watched them go. Every now and then I’d twiddle a short strand of my white-blonde hair between my fingers, which was quite hard considering I’d had it cut to the same length as most of the guys at my care-home, but other than that, I didn’t move. That was until I noticed the large mechanical bull outside the far window.  
I’d seen mechanical robot animals like this before so I knew that they could be dangerous, but this one was being chased by a bunch of teenage girls. They were quite far away, so I couldn't see them very well, but I could just make out their outlines as they chased the thing through fields and over hills. They were quite far ahead of us, and the train was drawing closer every second.  
It may seem strange to you but the mechanical bull didn't faze me much, I’d seen my fair share of monsters throughout my sixteen years, what I did find strange however was the group of girls attacking it with a bunch of bows and arrows. There were about twenty of them, all dressed in the same silvery ski jackets and jeans, I couldn’t make out much more from there, but they all seemed to give off this weird glow, like the light you get from a full moon. But the fact that these girls could apparently glow in the dark wasn't what had me so weirded out, no, it was the fact that, for the first time in my life, I wasn't the only one who could see the monster.  
That’s right, the whole reason I’ve been labelled as such a problem kid my whole life is because I've been fighting monsters. I mean, I’m not complaining (much), I've seen kids who make my problems look like a stroll through the park on a warm sunny day, but still, it’d be nice if instead of being given a telling off every time I save some helpless civilians from a grisly death by demonic evil bloodsucking monsters I might get a couple of words of thanks once in a while. Maybe? The problem is that no-one else seems to be able to see these creepy creatures from hell, so every time I manage to vaporise one into little clouds of sparkly dust, all the damage caused by the struggle is attributed to yours truly. So when I see a bunch of girls, some of them younger than me, basically doing my job for me it’s bound to catch my interest.  
I stood up from my seat, slinging the tattered old brown rucksack off the table and onto my shoulder. As I made my way down the train to the nearest set of doors, I watched the girls’ progress. They were doing pretty well it must be said, although they were causing the poor thing a hell of a lot of damage without quite killing it. For some reason, I had this urge to stop them from damaging the large metal bull, it just seemed such a waste of really excellent craftsmanship.  
I acted on an impulse. Taking one last glance down the train to make sure no-one was looking at me I pressed my hand against the buttons that operated the door. I could feel the electricity buzzing statically within the wires inside the doorframe and I willed it to short-circuit and slide open the doors. As the doors pulled slowly open I could feel the immense air pressure outside forming currents that whizzed all around the carriage, despite the deafening noise, not one person so much as looked up from their newspaper. That’s the British for you, stoically convinced that everything must be normal right up until something weird is staring them in the face, like a hungry Chimera perhaps. With that thought, I braced myself and jumped out of the speeding train.  
Don’t worry, I didn't die. You see, unlike normal people, I seem to be able to bend airflow to my will, so jumping out of a train topping 80mph is no problem at all; in fact, it doesn't hurt more than jumping into a pile of leaves in autumn. I landed with nothing more than a couple of scratches from the track-side brambles and started running to catch up with the kids ahead of me.  
I have to give it to them; they were pretty fast for girls who were slightly preoccupied with fighting a rampaging mechanical bull. By the time I reached them, I was panting heavily and more than a little out of breath. Now that I was up closer, I could see their faces more clearly. There was a pretty much even spread of skin colour, hair colour, age and height. But one girl at the front, with spiky black hair and an outfit style slightly different to the rest, seemed to be in charge. She looked to be a girl after my own heart, with a black denim jacket, skull earrings and a death to Barbie t-shirt which contrasted largely with the delicate little circlet of silver she wore on her head as a strange sort of tiara. If it hadn't been for my short ash blonde hair, I’d have said we were sisters, we had the same turned up nose and large grey eyes, although mine were paler than hers, she seemed to be only an inch or so taller than me. I ran past her as she called out orders to the others. It sounded like, ‘attack formation gamma’ or something similar. At any rate, the other girls seemed to understand her; they split into two groups and started attacking from both sides.  
The girls were pretty good shots with their bows but the arrows they fired seemed to just bounce off the animal’s bronze flank. I could see that if they were going to carry on like this it would take them forever to knock the animal down, and by that time it would be dented beyond repair. Ignoring the barrage of pointy objects sailing over my head I ran to catch up with the bull and vaulted up onto its hard metal back, not exactly my most well thought out plan, but it seemed to work. I spun round so that I could face the archers and yelled out to them over the noise of the creaking metal and pounding hooves.  
“You’re going to damage it!”  
Barbie-hater frowned.  
“That’s kinda the point!” She called, knocking back another arrow and aiming over my head.  
”Now get out of the way kid before I skewer you too!” She had a Hollywood American accent so I figured she wasn't from round here.  
“Just give me a second!” I replied, turning back to face the way the bull was going, ignoring the curses I could vaguely hear being hurled my way. I edged myself along its slippery back, trying not to let myself get thrown off the end or hit by one of the many flying arrows, and reached out to place my hand between its spiky metal ears. Let me just say that climbing about over a stampeding bull is a pretty tricky thing to do, I was lucky I didn't just slide off the back every time it’s metal hooves clanged against the muddy fields below us. I shut my eyes and concentrated on the mechanism inside. It really was amazing, whoever made this thing sure knew what they were doing, it ran on a complex clockwork system of cogs and screws, in essence it was just like a wind-up toy, but a scaled up and mega-complicated wind-up toy. Reaching out with my mind, I sensed about for the ‘off’ switch and sure enough, there it was, right on the underside of the bull’s belly. Helpful.  
Sighing resignedly, I swung myself so my legs were hooked around the animal’s back. Praying to anyone who’d listen I allowed my head to dangle past the bull’s stomach and reached out, towards centre of its bulging belly. I almost managed to reach the small circular indent without causing myself any major damage. Almost. Just as I was about to press down on the tiny thing, one of the bull’s front hooves kicked back a large stone that went careening straight into my arm. I cursed loudly as there was a loud crack and a stabbing pain through my wrist. Sucking in a large amount of air, I tried again, with my left arm this time and pressed down hard on the small hole. Thankfully the bull immediately stopped running. Unfortunately, this meant it skidded through the mud and capsized on top of me crushing me into the dirt. Shifting it on my own would’ve been impossible; thankfully, the helpful gang of girls were on hand to lift the massive thing off me. The first thing I saw when the huge metal contraption was lifted off my chest was the furious face of one dark haired Barbie-hater.  
“What in Zeus’s name did you think you were doing?” She practically screamed. The other girls looked at her nervously, but kept quiet, leaving me to fend for myself. Not being in the right condition to come up with a witty response I just groaned. Barbie-hater rolled her eyes and turned to one of her companions.  
“Give her some ambrosia will you? I’d rather not beat up a girl who’s already broken. It takes the fun out of it.” Charming. The other girl nodded and pulled a small square of golden food. She handed it to me and I looked at it dubiously.  
“Oh for the god’s sake just eat it.” I popped the small square of cake-like stuff into my mouth. It tasted great, like caramelised chocolate. I ate it greedily and was surprised to find that my wrist and probably broken ribs immediately started to feel less like they’d been snapped in two. Cautiously, I spun my wrist, and upon finding that it most definitely was no longer broken. I stood up grinning.  
“That stuff is awesome.”  
“Uh-huh? Great. Would you mind telling us who you are?” Barbie-hater said rudely.  
“Jeesh, you don’t beat about the bush do you? What if I don’t want to tell you?” I asked, crossing my arms and looking as menacing as possible. Normally, the crew-cut hair and sheer amount of rips on my clothing does that for me, but I had a feeling that just wouldn't cut it with these people. I was right.  
“Look kid,” Barbie-hater said pulling out a short but intimidating dagger from her back pocket. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way…” I rolled my eyes.  
“Fine, my name’s Opal Myin.” There was a short silence.  
“And…?” She prompted, waving for me to go on.  
“And what? That’s my name.”  
“Okay,” Barbie-hater said through gritted teeth, "let’s try this again. My name’s Thalia, daughter of Zeus. And you are?” I stared at her bug-eyed.  
“Daughter of what-now?” Thalia’s jaw clenched and she balled her fists, but before she could blow her top, the girl next to her (the one who’d given me the ambrosia square) who seemed to be her second in command or something tapped her arm.  
“Thalia, I don’t think she knows.” Thalia sighed.  
“Fine, could you explain it all to her Betty? I don’t have the time. I need to clear up this mess before Lady Artemis finds out how close we got to that mortal town.” Thalia stormed off, taking the rest of the archers with her. Betty, who seemed to be about my age with lovely chestnut brown curls tied up in a plait behind her back, smiled apologetically as she lead me off to a copse of trees where she sat on a low hanging branch.  
“Sorry about Thalia, she’s just a bit uptight because you screwed up her hunt.”  
“Oh um, okay. Sorry?” I said, sitting down on the grass in front of her. Betty smiled.  
“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure she’ll get over it once she’s calmed down a bit.”  
“Right. So what was she going on about? Something about being the daughter of an all powerful ancient Greek god?”  
“Well,” Betty said hesitantly. “Opal, how much do you know about the Greek gods?”  
Hmm. This to a girl who’s only ever really managed three consecutive weeks of school in her life.  
“Not a lot.” I said.  
“Okay, then this might be a bit tricky to grasp, but the Olympians are real, every single one of them. Only now, they live on a Mount Olympus above the Empire State building in New York.”  
“Okay.” I nodded. After years of battling monsters alone, having an explanation, strange as it may be, was reassuring. “So what’s that got to do with me?”  
“Well, it’s pretty obvious that you’re a demigod. Otherwise you wouldn’t have survived the ambrosia I just gave you. One of you parents was a Greek god.”  
“Which one?”  
“That’s what Thalia wanted to know. If you don’t know, then I doubt anyone but your godly parent does, you’ll just have to wait to be claimed.”  
“Claimed? As in, ‘yeah, that’s my daughter’?”  
“That’s sounds about right. Normally demigods should be claimed by the age of thirteen, but I suppose since you live out here in England, it must have taken longer for the gods to find you. See the God’s have their seat of power, Mount Olympus, in America. It's at the top of the Empire State Building.” Betty didn’t sound entirely sure about my claiming, I simply figured that maybe I’d already been claimed and had just completely missed it. Maybe one of those lion-scorpion hybrids that had been after me last week had actually been trying to tell me about my mum/dad being a greek god. In any case the whole America being the new home of greek culture was far more surprising than yet another person in my life not caring.  
“So what? The gods live in the USA now? Did they get tired of the Mediterranean weather?”  
“Not quite, they move around along with the seat of power in the west, at the moment, America is currently the most powerful western civilisation, so that’s where they are.”  
“Hmmph. Most powerful huh? So what about the UK, we’re just as powerful as you are.” I said, my long-lost patriotism kicking in.  
“Whatever you say sweetie. Doesn't change the fact that the gods are in America, which is also where most demigods end up now, since that’s where the gods er… well, you get the picture.” I nodded.  
“So what is it that demi-gods do? Just run about bashing monsters?”  
“Yeah, there’s this camp back in Montauk, where all the Greek demigods go to train and stuff, I’m not entirely sure what exactly they get up to, I was only there for a year before I joined Lady Artemis’ hunt. I found this life a whole lot more appealing, especially the immortality.”  
“Whoa, hang on, you’re immortal? Is that why you - you know - glow?” Betty looked down curiously at her hand.  
“I glow?”  
“Yeah, this weird silvery-like glow. Maybe it’s just me, but you guys all look like you’re glowing.”  
“I suppose that must be something to do with Artemis, she is the goddess of the moon you know. Speaking of which, it will be night soon, you must be hungry. Come on, let’s get you some food, I think everyone else has set up camp. Lady Artemis should be here in a moment, she will decide what to do with you.”  
I followed Betty who led me back to where the bull had been a few minutes before, but now there was a circular group of silvery tents surrounding a large campfire. I was given a bowl of soup and a spoon and told to eat up, so I did. The Hunters were surprisingly good cooks for people who probably hadn’t set foot in a kitchen for the past century. I finished up my bowl in a matter of minutes and was just thinking how well it would go down if I asked for seconds when there was a burst of pale silvery light and all the hunters got down on their knees. I shielded my eyes from the glare, and when the light died down again, I looked up to find not a goddess, but a twelve year old girl in an elegant silvery dress standing silently in front of Thalia.


	2. Chapter 2

“Rise, my hunters.” The order was delivered gently but with confidence. The hunters did as they were commanded, still staring expectantly at this tiny little child who had just appeared in burst of divine light.  
Today was rapidly climbing the ranks to become one of the most bizarre days I'd ever experienced.  
I wondered if perhaps they hunters had all gone nuts, or maybe I was the one who was hallucinating. But then the girl turned to survey the camp and as she did so her piercingly silver eyes swept a cursory glance over me. In that moment I changed my entire perspective on judging by appearances. Although this girl might not seem much to look at, there was more power in that brief millisecond of her scrutiny than I had ever felt in my whole life. I shivered.   
“Thalia, I see you've caught the bronze bull, would you apprise me of everything that happened?”   
“Of course my lady.” Thalia said, and launched into a brief but detailed explanation of their exploits across my country. When she got to the bit where I jumped in and stopped them from completely destroying the thing Thalia gave me a resenting glare.  
“Then this upstart, unclaimed demigod jumps in and nearly gets herself killed trying to shut the thing down.” She finished. I glowered back at her, but stopped when Artemis turned to look at me. Her moonlit eyes widened in surprise when she saw me, and I wondered if she’d seen me before, she did seem almost familiar. I mean I was supposed to be a child of one of the gods wasn't I? So maybe she knew one of my parents. But Artemis just frowned slightly and made no move to talk about me any further so I just went back to running my finger round the rim of my bowl and eating the dregs of my soup. Finally, when the little Q and A session between Thalia and Artemis had finished the young goddess approached me, with Thalia standing slightly behind her.  
“Opal Myin,” she said, forming the words carefully with her mouth as though they were something bad waiting to happen.  
“It seems we are bound to give you safe passage to your chosen destination. Would you like my hunters and me to escort you home?” I thought about it for a second and then shook my head.  
“Actually, this Camp Half-Blood sounds like a pretty cool place, could you take me there instead?” Artemis pursed her lips.  
“You would not rather return to your friends and family?”  
“I don’t have friends,” I said, “or family for that matter. To be honest, there’s nothing much left for me here. Camp Half-Blood might actually be a place where I can finally fit in. And if it’s in a different country that’s just a bonus.” ‘It’ll get rid of my criminal record.’ I added in my head. Artemis sighed.  
“Well if that’s really where you want to go then we shall comply. But I would advise against it.” I shrugged. “We shall give you shelter with us for tonight and tomorrow morning I shall hand you over to my brother, he will take you to camp half blood.” I smiled.  
“Thanks.”  
“It is my duty to help any maiden in need.” Artemis said simply, before turning away to discuss some more with her head hunter. I watched them go, wondering why I got the impression that Artemis wasn't happy I’d turned up.  
That night, I shared a tent with Betty and a few of her immortal friends. I was given a nice poufy sleeping bag that kept me snug and warm. I kicked off my trainers before hunkering down. My bag with all my things inside was neatly placed by my head. I’m not sure if I was being affected by some strange hunter magic that kept everyone asleep or whether I was just really tired, but I fell drifted off straight away into a land of my usual, dreamless sleep. Did I ever mention that? I don’t dream. It’s not something I lose sleep over (har har) but it seems to unnerve my doctor. After a peaceful dreamless night, I woke to find that it was still dark, with just the slightest hint of the sun in the paleness of the sky in the east, above all the fields and trees.  
“Wake up sleepyhead.” Betty said, gently shaking me awake. I rolled over and wormed my way out of my silver cocoon. Shoving my trainers back on and tossing my bag over my shoulder, I followed her outside to find the whole camp of hunters standing outside staring at the gradually lightening sky.  
“He should be here any minute now,” Artemis murmured quietly to herself. I turned to face the sky, with everyone else and just as I did, the gilt edge of the sun peeped out form over the horizon. There was a loud revving noise, like the sound an engine makes when it’s being pushed too hard and finally in a blast of pure gold light that could burn the retinas out of you, a huge golden Lamborghini pulled up on the grass in front of us, scorching a large brown burn-mark onto the ground. Sitting in the front seat, was a guy who was, for want of a better expression, pretty hot. He was wearing wrap-around shades which he lifted slightly to get a good look at our little group. He got up out of the car and strutted over to Artemis, giving her a brotherly pat on the back.  
“Hey there little sis” he drawled. Artemis seethed.  
“We've been over this Apollo, we’re twins. I’m not your ‘little sis’.” I vaguely remembered from a distant history lesson I’d actually managed to sit through, that Apollo was Artemis’s twin brother, god of light, music and prophecy.  
“Whatever you say Misy. So what is it you want this time? I must say, I’m feeling flattered, two favours in one decade. That must be some kind of record.” Artemis just glared at him.  
“This demi-god, Opal, needs a ride to Half-Blood Hill.” Apollo looked over to me and I felt my face heat up, although that could just have been because Apollo was radiating heat like the sun itself. I’d get sunburn if we stood around for much longer.  
“Hey there, Opal is it?” I nodded.  
“Great, well hop in Opal, I’m always happy to help a pretty damsel in distress.” This elicited a few outraged hisses form Artemis’ hunters, but Apollo didn't seem to notice. “Well if that’s all sis, I’ll be off. I got a planet to light up.” He held open the car door and I hopped in the passenger seat. Apollo took the wheel and winked at his sister. Then he spotted Thalia in the crowd. “Oh, Hey Thalia, sure you don’t want me to give you another spin?” Thalia glared so hard I was surprised his godly behind didn't combust there and then. “No? Shame, you’d have made a great sun-driver. Ah well, I’ll tell Percy and Annabeth you said hi yeah?” And without another word he gunned the engine and we leaped into the sky. I kept a death-grip on my seat till I was certain we’d levelled out, but then I relaxed enough to take a look at the ground far below us. It was kinda fun watching all the tiny houses go by, but soon we were flying out over the Atlantic and all I could see were waves. “Hey Opal,” Apollo said, “You’ve inspired a haiku. Here, how’s this:   
Half-blood needs a ride  
I am cool and help them out  
With my kick-ass car.”  
“Er…” I said, “It’s uhm, great.” Apollo grinned.  
“Yeah I think so too. How old are you again?”  
“Sixteen.” I replied, slightly put off, by his quick change of subject.  
“Awesome, wanna drive?” I stared at him to see if he was joking, but apparently not.  
“Uhm… okay, sure, why not.” I shuffled over and took the wheel, trying not to grip too tight. This shouldn’t be too hard. I thought. You’ve driven cars before, albeit illegally. I was right, it wasn’t hard. In fact it was great fun.  
“This is brilliant!” I yelled as I brought us in for a low dive over the waves. Apollo laughed,   
“That’s not what Thalia said. She went into a rampage and ended up nearly burning down a couple of mortal towns. Turns out she was scared of heights.” I giggled,  
“No way? Thalia? Isn’t she meant to be like, daughter of the Lord of the sky or something?”   
“Yup,” Apollo replied. “Ironic isn’t it?” The rest of the journey was spent in much the same way, not that it took long of course, what with us travelling by sun-chariot. We reached Montauk in around five hours, faster than any mortal plane, or so Apollo said. He dropped me off in the lake, literally. We landed at the shoreline with a huge splash and a hiss of steam. “This is where I leave you Opal. I hope you don’t get killed by some monster, you’re actually quite a nice kid.” He grinned at me like this was some huge compliment. Coming from a god, it probably was  
“Right, well er, thanks for the ride Apollo. I’ll see you around.” I jumped out of the car and into the knee-deep water. With one last dazzling grin, Apollo took off, leaving me on the shore completely at a loss as to what to do. It was still pretty early, and it seemed like no-one was up yet so I waded up to the beach and stood there for a second, watching the waves ripple against the sand. It was strange to think that this time yesterday I was still in bed in that dump of a care-home back in Ashford. I wonder what I’d say if you told me then that within the next twenty four hours I would not only leave my country behind without a second’s thought, but also meet a bunch of immortal hunters and two ancient Greek gods. For some reason, I don’t think I’d have called you crazy. I realised I would probably just have accepted it and said something stupid like ‘awesome’. I guess that’s what comes from living a life filled with monsters.  
I was about to turn around and continue further inland to try and find this camp when I noticed a load of bubbles coming up from the bottom of the lake. Seconds later,there was a loud ‘pop’ as a gigantic bubble burst open on the water’s surface. Out of this bubble came two teenagers, both miraculously dry and both wielding very dangerous looking pointed weapons.  
"Who are you?" Asked the girl. She was very pretty with her blonde curls and angular face but somehow her good looks just made her twice as scary. The same could be said for her male companion who looked like a Californian surfboard model with his sunkissed skin and tousled black locks, but something told me this guy was not just a pretty face.  
"My name's Opal, Apollo… just dropped me off" I said, cautiously raising my palms in surrender and trying not to think how strange that sentence sounded.   
The early morning sun glinted off their two swords as they were lowered. The girl gave me a quick appraising look before wading back to shore, her friend with one hand on her shoulder.  
"Annabeth Chase," she said holding out a hand as she came to a stop in front of me. "This is Percy Jackson." Percy smiled at me while I shook Annabeth's hand.  
"I've not seen you around here before so I'm going to assume you're a new recruit. Unfortunately for you you've arrived at rather a bad time." Annabeth chewed her lip in contemplation.  
"A bad time?" I asked.  
"We'll take you up to the big house." Annabeth decided by way of an answer. "Chiron will explain this better."   
"Advanced warning," Percy butted in, "Chiron is head of activities here at camp, but he's also a centaur, so don't let the horse end put you off."  
I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that statement, but Percy just grinned amiably as he and Annabeth lead the way up the beach. He seemed like a pretty cheery guy, as we passed any interesting feature he thought needed some explanation he would point it out and tell me stories of his antics. There was that time he nearly died on the climbing wall, and the time he nearly died in the forest, he'd even had a near death experience in the strawberry fields. From my first impression I'd assumed Annabeth would find Percy's display silly, but instead of urging him to hurry up she stood and waited, smiling indulgently as she watched his face light up. They were positively adorable in a "we could kill you any second kind of way".  
Speaking of things that could kill you any second, 5 minutes into Percy's tour I had already decided that Camp Half-Blood was my new home for life. When we stopped off at the armoury I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It was filled to the brim with monster fighting equipment: swords, crossbows, spears. If it was deadly then it would show up somewhere.  
Not only that but apparently the forest that surrounded one edge of camp was a veritable monster party, they had everything from chimera to griffons to drakons. Anything a girl could ask for. I wondered why we couldn't have digs like this back home. Just because America thinks it's so much more powerful. We had an empire once too, a bloody massive one. Surely at one point the gods had their seat of power over England's green and pleasant land? So what happened to those demigods, they must have had somewhere to train too right?  
The whole tour was raising a multitude of questions but I figured it would be impolite to interrupt Percy in the midst of his enthusiastic descriptions.  
Our next stop was the cabins. They were a sight and a half let me tell you. The whole courtyard was pretty deserted except for one or two early risers so I got the full effect of the long crescent of cabins all leading up to Zeus and Hera's twin cabins at the far end.  
"Wow." I breathed. "That's... wow. Is there an entire cabin for each god?"  
"Yeah, even the minor gods have kids," Percy explained. As we passed each cabin he named the godly parent who owned it and gave me a quick rundown on what they were like.  
None of the cabins jumped out at me in particular as being a place that suited me, I liked aspects of each of the cabins, because let's face it, most of them were pretty cool. But not a single one really made me think I’d found the family I was looking for.  
Eventually we made it to the Big House, which it turned out was exactly what it said on the tin. Big and blue with a wide porch running right the way around its base like those houses from old Westerns set in the deep south. You could just imagine sitting in a rocking chair on that porch watching the sun go down over Long Island.   
They lead me up the wooden steps before knocking quietly on the screen door that faced the camp.  
After a few seconds the sound of shuffling and the rhythmic clop of hooves could be heard slowly approaching the door.  
"Annabeth? Gods, what time is it?"  
A curly head popped itself round the door frame followed closely by shoulders, a torso and then his front two hooves. The centaur towered above me but the slightly bemused look on his face and severe bed-head prevented me from being too intimidated. Not to mention the t-shirt he was wearing that said ‘party ponies’. A phrase like that tends to detract from the intimidation factor.  
"Sorry to disturb you Chiron, but Percy and I found a new camper wandering along the beach. This is Opal."  
I stepped forward.  
"Hey," I gave a nervous wave.  
"Opal hmm?" Chiron squinted at me, blinked and then squinted again. "I'm sorry I had rather a late night. It's lovely to meet you, do come in."  
He ushered us inside to a cosy office in a manner that made me think maybe new campers showing up out of the blue in the small hours of the morning might be more regular an occurrence than I imagined. Chiron's office reminded me of the various headmaster’s studies I’d been in over the years but with a little extra chaos. It was utterly cluttered, sheafs of paper were stacked waist high on just about every surface. The bulletin boards attached to the wall were also completely covered but this time with photos, kids smiling out at the camera, all wearing the same orange camp t-shirts that Percy and Annabeth had, in fact - yes, there over the fireplace, that was Percy and Annabeth. The photo couldn’t be more than a couple of years old but the two of them looked so much younger, more carefree. Percy had an arm wound round Annabeth and both them were positively beaming as the sun beat down on their faces.  
Looking up at the two smiling but careworn faces that stood either side of me, I wondered what had happened since then to make them age so quickly.  
Chiron trotted in behind us, ducking his head to stop himself smacking against the lintel. He stopped behind the desk and made as though he were about to sit down, which confused me slightly considering he had the back end of a horse. Chiron took a step backwards and then his legs seem to fold up into the front of a wheelchair that I could now see standing behind him. Within seconds nothing from the waist down was visible.  
“So,” Chiron said after a bit of fidgeting, “let's get up to speed shall we? You know that I am Chiron, the camp director, and Camp Half-Blood is a summer camp for demigods?”  
“Yes.”  
“Would you mind telling me a bit about yourself, where you were born, who your parents are?”  
Percy and Annabeth had stepped back a bit and were watching quietly from the side of the room I noticed the two of them lean forward slightly as they waited for my answer.”  
“Uh yeah, that might be a little difficult.”  
“How so?” Chiron asked, folding his hands on the desk in front of him.  
“Well see, I’m an orphan. I don’t really know anything about the first few years of my life. I was given to an orphanage in Ashford when I was three and they don’t have records of my parents so…” I trailed off awkwardly, shoving my hands in my pockets to stop myself fidgeting. I hated telling people about myself, I felt like I was begging for sympathy.   
“You’ve not had any... sign? Any indication at all of who your godly parent is?”  
“Not that I’ve noticed.” Again I felt a well of nerves in the pit of my stomach wondering if there was anything I might have missed over the years, some sign that I didn’t understand.  
“I see.” Chiron frowned into his beard, clearly thinking hard about something. “Well, that is unusual. I suppose I ought to tell you that the Olympian gods vowed a few years ago that they would claim all demigods by the time they were thirteen. I believe you are older than that?” I nodded.  
“Yeah, I’m sixteen.”   
“Most unusual…” Chiron sat thinking again before being roused by a subtle cough from Annabeth. “Hm? Oh yes right. Well Opal, we’ve not had to do this in a while but I suppose you’ll have to bunk in the Hermes cabin while we try to figure out which of the cabins you really belong in.”  
I thought back to the circle of cabins we’d passed through earlier. Hermes, god of... thieves? Oh right, that had been the cabin with the remains of a paintball fight plastered over its front wall. Should be fun. I smiled appreciatively.  
“Thanks.”  
“Yes, I’m sure you’ll fit right in. Percy and Annabeth will take you there to get you settled in and I suppose you’ll be wanting breakfast as well?”  
Up until that point I hadn’t really thought about my stomach but of course it chose that moment to make it all too clear that it felt neglected.  
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Chiron smiled. “Right well before then I’m afraid I have a warning to give you. You have not arrived at a very good time. Here at camp we’ve been having some… problems.”  
Oh dear, that did not sound good.  
“For some time now our camp has been under siege. We used to have a rather handy magical protection barrier which kept out the worst of any monsters that might want to do us harm, being a demigod I don’t doubt you’ve met your fair share of those?”  
I nodded glumly.  
“Yes, well unfortunately that barrier has stopped working for whatever reason, and to make matters worse the gods have… well they appear to be in the process of going missing. All the major gods, the big three and a variety of others including our ex camp director have disappeared and those that are left don't know what's happening. Which, although this isn’t the first time we've had gods go missing, does not bode well.”  
I could imagine, if the gods were able to do what the myths said, it did not bode well at all.  
“Can’t someone just, I don’t know, go up to Olympus and look for them?” I asked instantly wishing that I had a better brain to mouth filter for stupid ideas.  
“Olympus has been closed off for a while now, and what is more worrying is that our friends at the Roman Camp have also reported a lack of contact with their gods, which has not happened before.”  
The revelation that there was an entire other camp for Roman gods was a bit of a shock and I would have pried further but the gravity in Chiron's voice brought home to me just how much of a problem they were facing. Annabeth and Percy didn’t look too happy about any of this either, although I assumed they already knew most of it, hearing it repeated like this obviously wasn’t making them feel any better about it.  
"The result of all of this is that Camp Half-Blood is rather vulnerable at the moment. We're having to instate a guard duty around the camp's perimeter and we're also training up all our campers to fight. It's only a possibility but we fear there may be another great war coming and want to be prepared if there is. That being said, we more than anyone know that a war can be the last place you want to find yourself. So if you wish it, we are more than happy to arrange transport for you back to England. This is not your war, you are under no obligation to stay and fight." Throughout his speech Chiron had remained very somber, now he looked to me, as though searching for something hidden in my facial expression.  
I for one was a little overwhelmed. This was a lot to lay on a girl before six in the morning, I felt like I needed more time to think it through. But then I stopped and thought about what was waiting for me back in England. An empty bed, an angry caseworker and a whole host of excuses and explanations that I wouldn't even know where to begin with. Then I looked out through the large picture window that had a view across the whole expanse of camp had blood. The sun was just detaching itself from the horizon above the sound, its rays, blinding at first, brushed out across the landscape like the beam of a lighthouse slowly calling ships safe to shore. I guess that says it all really, even my poetic subconscious had already started thinking of this place as home.  
"I'll stay." I said tentatively. "That is, if that's okay?" I added, hastily looking to see if Chiron approved.  
"Wonderful." He smiled welcomingly and one of the many knots of nerves that had been busily tying itself tighter in my stomach relaxed with a sigh. Maybe I really would fit in here.


End file.
